Bringing apps and technology into board games

Image Credit: Vizzzual.com

In the last decade the board gaming hobby has made a triumphant resurgence into many people’s lives. Gone are the days where the only games families will play is Monopoly and Cluedo. On the popular board gaming website Boardgamegeek.com they have 79,944 board games registered in their database.

But with so many board games being published each year they are struggling to get noticed by the players and the market. To combat this, board game designers needed to think of an innovation to add to their games which would make their game stand out in an over saturated market and entice the players. This innovation started to take play in early 2014, and it came in the form of mobile apps to assist or enhance gameplay in board games. There are three primary board game app categories:

1. Full gameplay. These apps would consist of being the entire game in digital form.
2. Buddy apps. These apps would help the users track game information such as their health points and score.
3. Core apps. These apps are the core foundation of the game, and without the app the game is nigh on impossible to play.

Buddy apps have always gone down well with the board gaming community. They are not aiming to replace any gameplay functionality and just aim to support the current user’s play, or enhance it. A popular example would be One Night Ultimate Werewolf’s app. It merely adds narrative, and sound effects to the game which could have easily been read out and played by a player.

The controversy comes from core apps. With these apps most of the gameplay elements are captured in the application, making players concerned that if the app or devices are no longer supported in the future then it renders their game unplayable and obsolete. This is not an uncommon fear with technology outside of board games.

Image Credit: Clever Move Games

Often technology companies are scared by how software scales, and its longevity. However, many board game players were quick to defend apps in gaming as a principle of “If the game is good, the app will be supported for a long time”.

Popular core apps games include Alchemist and XCOM.

Alchemist is innovative with its use of apps as it allows the player to play the game to acquire ingredients to use in his alchemy, then input those ingredients into the app to determine if the potion worked. This can all be done without an app (so longevity is preserved), but is a long winded process.

Image Credit: Nerd Rock From The Sun

XCOM on the other hand, uses its app to set real-time mission objectives, and tells a player what is going to happen on a given round which that player must then communicate to the rest of the team.